


The First Almyran Winter

by MagalaBee



Series: MariClaude Week 2020 [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Epilogue, F/M, MariClaude, Post-Canon, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), mariclaude week, mariclaude week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23788180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagalaBee/pseuds/MagalaBee
Summary: The royal gardens in Almyra weren't dead in the winter, they were only sleeping. Cherishing the warmth they had until spring.MariClaude Week Day 2: Winter
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund & Claude von Riegan, Marianne von Edmund/Claude von Riegan
Series: MariClaude Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712566
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22
Collections: MariClaude Week





	The First Almyran Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who read, kudos, and commented on my first piece! You guys are so sweet and supportive.  
> Here's my post for day 2! Again, I've been writing between work tasks, so I appreciate your patience with any typos along the way. If you like this, then please leave Kudos and Comments to share your thoughts and help me keep going for the rest of this week!
> 
> Enjoy, readers!

Marianne thought that the winters in Almyra would be mild and warm, but how wrong she had been. When the sun went down in the arid nation, dominated by a vast desert, the air turned to ice. While snow was rare to find outside of the mountain range, Marianne had been surprised by how quickly the temperature dropped.

She could see her breath in a thick cloud around her lips. With layers and layers of fine silk and wool wrapped around her, Marianne smiled as her breath misted and faded with each exhale. A part of her missed the gingerbread and clove-stuffed oranges of Leicester at this time of year.

But there were far better things to be found in Almyra.

Marianne felt an arm wrap around her back, gently pulling her close. She ducked her head, leaning it against Khalid’s shoulder, amidst the wrappings of his woven scarves. She felt the tickle of his braid against her cheek.

“Enjoying the view?” Khalid asked.

“I am, actually.”

Marianne knew that he was joking. Looking out at the palace gardens at this time of year was a bit of a barren scene. The thin, reedy grasses had turned brown, the trees had shed their leaves, and the creeping vines that covered the trellises had closed their flowers until the spring. It was a landscape of hibernation. Sleeping potential that would bloom again in the spring.

She sighed and turned her head to nuzzle against him. “I like it here,” she whispered.

“I’m glad,” Khalid whispered back. “I know how hard it can be to adjust.”

He had a point. Marianne had only been in Almyra for a few weeks, and everything here was different. The clothes lacked stays and the usual restrictive layers that she had grown up with, the food was full of spices and flavors that overwhelmed her senses sometimes, the music and artwork entirely new. Marianne felt like she had jumped into a lake, completely submerged. 

Many of the members of Almyra’s court gave her cautious looks. Skeptical, questioning, a bit judgmental, but she could hardly blame them. Peace between Fodlan and Almyra was still a new development, and Khalid had brought her back with him after an Alliance diplomatic council. To many, it seemed out of nowhere.

They didn’t know how long their hearts had been tethered to one another.

“Your country is beautiful,” Marianne murmured. “And your family is so kind, I…”

His grip around her shoulders tightened. “I know, love. It’s alright.”

By now, there wasn’t a corner of her soul that Khalid didn’t know. She had confided in him not only about her cursed blood, but about her childhood. Before the Margrave had adopted her. The parents who had disappeared and how she had never been able to properly mourn them.

Marianne had almost cried when she met his parents and his mother had immediately embraced her.

“They like you too,” Khalid chuckled, kissing the top of her head. “My father told me that you remind him of jasmine flowers. Pale and lovely and seemingly fragile--” Marianne felt him smirk against her hair. “But resilient. Always enduring.”

Marianne’s cheeks began to flush. “I just wish I knew better how to be a leader.”

When they married in two weeks, she’d be a princess. Someday queen, when Khalid took the throne. It was frightening to think about sometimes, and it made Marianne miss her old friend, Dorte. If he were still alive, she could talk through her anxieties with him.

“Give yourself a bit more credit than that,” Khalid encouraged, rubbing his hand up and down her forearm to keep her warm and nudge her playfully. “You fought by our sides, Marianne, and you learned quite a bit from the Margrave. Besides, your different perspective will serve you well. Almyra hasn’t had a member of the royal family come from humble roots. You understand what the common folk need better than most. Maybe even better than me.”

Marianne smiled and shook her head a bit. “Khalid--”

“Hush now, I mean it,” he insisted. “You sell yourself short, Marianne. You have a lot more to offer than you think.”

Marianne’s gaze drifted back out to the sleeping winter garden. Lying in wait before it could bloom.

“...Maybe you’re right,” she conceded.

“Although you’ve agreed to marry me, so maybe you have a point,” he remarked in a tone rife with teasing play. “Perhaps you were dropped on your head as a baby?”

“Stop!” Marianne giggled, picking her up off his shoulder and swatting a hand against his chest. Her breath came in a flurry of short clouds as she laughed.

Both his arms looped around her then, Khalid shifted to face her, hugging her around her waist as he pulled her in for a quick kiss. His lips tasted mildly of the cinnamon from his spiced tea, but all of him was warm, it chased away the frigid chill of the desert winter.

“I love you,” she whispered, heartfelt and sure.

“I know,” Khalid smiled, looking at her with heavy green eyes. “I love you too.”


End file.
